"Find My iPhone" App helps find woman whose care tumbled hundreds of feet down an embankment

From SF Gate:

 28-year-old woman from Campbell whose car tumbled hundreds of feet down an embankment on Mount Hamilton east of San Jose was rescued and taken to a hospital Tuesday morning after she spent more than 12 hours stuck and injured, officials said. . . . 

On Monday afternoon, just after 2 p.m., Campbell police officers received a report from General Motors’ OnStar system saying there had been a rollover accident involving Melissa Vasquez’s Chevrolet Cruze in the area of White Oaks Road and Shelley Avenue in Campbell, said Capt. Gary Berg. . . . 

Officers spent two hours searching the area, Berg said. But the pegged location wasn’t right. Police had OnStar honk the car horn remotely, to no avail. A second strategy — having officers run sirens in different locations to see if they could be heard over the OnStar system — also failed. . . . 

Officers then contacted Vasquez’s cell company, which provided a location of her phone within a 7-mile radius of downtown San Jose, Berg said. Authorities were still unable to locate the car. Campbell police officers broadcast the vehicle’s description to all agencies in the county, he said. 

Then, just before 3 a.m. Tuesday, Campbell police officers received a missing person’s report from Vasquez’s stepmother, with whom she lives, officials said. She said she hadn’t heard from her. 

Officer Dave Cameron met with the stepmother and asked if Vasquez had Find My iPhone, an app that allows you to locate your misplaced iPhone using cell signals. The stepmother responded that Vasquez owned an iPad — but she didn’t know where it was. . . .

The officer was able to find the woman's iPad, guess her password, guess that she used the same password on her iPhone and they use the "Find My iPhone" app to figure our where she was.

“Amazingly, Officer Cameron was able to guess the correct password after only 3-4 tries using his knowledge of commonly used password combinations,” officials said.
The Find my iPhone app was also locked. But the same password opened it up. 

Cameron activated the “lost phone” feature and saw a map of the location of Vasquez’s iPhone — 14555 Mount Hamilton Rd. . . .